Left Wing Surge STALLS In Key U.S. Election

Last Tuesday was a big moment for the American left. Uh that was with Abdul als of course winning the Michigan Senate primary for the Democrats, proving that the left can win nominations in purple states and they can take on and defeat the money of the Israel lobby. And polls had suggested the Democratic Socialists of America were due another win this week in Wisconsin. Their member Franchesca Hong had been the front runner in a primary for the governorship of the state. Polls had shown her 20 points ahead of her nearest rival, but by Wednesday morning it was clear she'd lost, even if by the narrowest of margins. With almost all votes counted, the establishmentbacked Democrat David Crowley has 39.78% of the vote. Hong has 39.37% of the vote. Hong, who is a chef and restaurant owner, was dogged by negative stories about past tweets calling for the abolition of the police and even cancelling Thanksgiving. Uh, which she of course struggled to rebut or even explain. This was one viral clip during the campaign. >> You know, you've talked about your past positions that he keeps highlighting and, you know, obviously likely would continue to do so before November should you win. One thing that they brought up as well was a post from you in 2021. um where you said Americans should cancel Thanksgiving, should have done this in 1621. Uh the post has been deleted. Republicans have been highlighting it. Do you still believe that uh Thanksgiving should be cancelled? >> I'm a chef and one of the first meals that I made uh that was um for the community when I was 16 was a Thanksgiving meal. You know, I always think my hospitality background and owning a restaurant for seven, eight years that bringing folks around the table uh to share conversation and build community is always a good thing. But Thanksgiving is also a time that's incredibly painful for many people in our communities. And so I think there I wanted to make sure that people understood that there are multiple views, but you know, views can evolve. and the position that I'm running for right now and I think my background as a chef will actually help me become a better governor that's able to bring more people to the table. >> I don't think anything she said there was actually unreasonable. I don't agree with all of it, but it's not unreasonable. These are these are coherent points. Uh but it's not great populist politics, which is perhaps why Bernie Sanders and AOC withheld any endorsement of Hong, which is a shame. It's a shame. you said one thing in winter of 2020. We were kind of all going a bit crazy uh and you know you you you don't win which is a shame. She probably would have been a very good public representative but the closeness of the race means there has been some backlash at the decision of those two namely Bernie Sanders and AOC to stay out of the race. Nathan Robinson is editor of the leftist current affairs magazine. He said this totally inexcusable that Bernie and AOC failed to back home. If she loses narrowly, it will be a major setback for the socialist movement that they will bear major responsibility for. Someone with a different take on why Hong lost was Julian Andreioni from Dropsite News. Americans love economic populism. They want another new deal, but they are completely turned off by college campus culture warrior performative activism. Evidence: These results happened in almost neighboring states on the same night. Andreion is comparing Hong's loss in the Wisconsin primary to a win in the Minnesota Senate primary by Peggy Flanigan. Flanigan ran on progressive priorities including universal healthcare, a high minimum wage, and an end to unconditional US aid for Israel. These were all very popular things, particularly with undecided voters. She was also massively outspent by a corpored rival. Flanagan was backed by Bernie Sanders, but she does not identify as a socialist and was not backed by the DSA. Here's how she accepted the Democratic nomination. >> As your next senator, here are the things that I'm ready to throw down for. >> Ending the despicable priorities of an administration that hands out tax breaks to billionaires, builds gilded ballrooms, and spends billions on bombs while screwing over working people. truly affordable housing so that people can pay their rent and young people can buy their first home before they're middle-aged. Passing right to repair so that Minnesota farmers can fix their own damn equipment. and getting rid of prior authorization so that some dude behind a desk or worse yet an AI bot isn't determining whether you get the life-saving health care that your doctor has prescribed and passing Medicare for ALL because we are going to make healthcare official. available and affordable once and for all. >> She doesn't identify as a socialist. That's winning. By the way, when people talk about policies far to the left of the Democrats, you know, then at any point before 2016, not including the New Deal obviously, and they said, "Look, I'm not socialist. I just want to put working people first. I want to stop tax cuts for billionaires. I want to stop support for Israel. Uh, I want to build homes for working people, but I'm not a socialist. Fine, knock yourself out. That's winning. When people do everything you want in your agenda, that sounds like Bernie Sanders. Uh, but I'm not a socialist. That's fine. And by the way, before people in the comments say, "What a s democracy." I know. I know. But clearly the the the tenor, the tone, the rhetoric, that is foreign brimstone lesbian politics. If she doesn't want to identify as that, great. Fine by me. Uh to get a lowdown on Tuesday's primaries and what they meant for the American left. Earlier on today, my colleague Michael Walker spoke to Branco Marcetic. He's of course a staff writer at the magazine Jackapen. >> I think there was one major race that was a very bitter, disappointing loss, which is the um gubernatorial race in Wisconsin. I mean that and that really was, you know, the biggest prize for socialists because it uh it was a statewide race in the Midwest. Uh socialists want to prove that they could win in a Midwestern state on the state level. Um and and it would have been an electoral test for the socialist movement uh in the general election. So that was really the biggest prize and that's a massive disappointment. Uh is it an overall defeat? I I think it's hard to make that case when if you look at the the the candidates that DSA chapters, Democratic Socialists of America chapters actually endorsed. Um most of them did end up uh moving on to the general election and winning their races. Um now those I don't think eclipse the the uh Fran Hong defeat but it is important I think to keep it into perspective that the you know on the whole social scandid end up winning uh uh last night. >> Al so just ju just just to clarify because I know I've very much familiar with Hong and Flanigan. What are the DSA backed or sort of DSA candidates who who did win last night? What kind of races are we talking about there? >> Um there were several incumbents that won re-election. Ryan Clancy for instance in Wisconsin. He's in the state assembly. Uh there was also Omar Fate which you know he he had run for uh uh mayor of of Minneapolis. He won his state senate re-election bid. But there were also others that that won. I mean in Minnesota for instance the school board race uh Twin Cities DSA endorsed candidate uh won for that position. you had um a socialist candidate actually running two socialist candidates running to replace uh Fran Hong in her current seat. One was a DA DSA backed socialist candidate um uh Juliana Bennett. he lost to another socialist candidate. Um uh and and I also have confirmed uh from uh Ryan Clansancy who I just mentioned before that uh the Wisconsin Legislative Socialist Caucus uh which did not exist four years ago and the last time it existed was about 100 years ago is going to expand in the next legislative session. uh partly because of um you know some of the the wins that I mentioned but also partly because I think some members are going to um join that caucus who were not identifying as socialist before. Um and then sort of a few other kind of uh uh smaller races down ballots uh that were won by socialist candidates. Um, so, uh, it it it also I I'll be remiss to mention to not mention, um, in Connecticut, um, in Vermont, which also had primaries, there were several, uh, socialist candidates that won, including one for the, uh, Connecticut uh, state senate, I believe, the the first Muslim um, uh, candidate that that will sit in that body. So, um, there are some some other major wins, you know, if we look beyond that that one kind of very disappointing defeat. So you got you got some some local victories alongside the sort of nationwide defeat or I suppose this is a statewide defeat but it would be to go to a nationwide body. Um what happened with Hong then? I mean there have been I mean there's been some fallout today. I've sort of seen it on X. Um people arguing whether or not um Bernie and AOC have let down the socialist cause by not backing Franchesca Hong. Um I mean obviously people on the other side saying that they made the right decision because she was a weak candidate. This is what they're saying. she was a weak candidate and she probably would have lost in in the generals and that would have been more damaging for for socialists than her losing the primary. Um where do you stand on that? >> Um I think it's a fair criticism. Uh I mean Hong lost by a few thousand votes. Uh uh you know I think it was 4%. Um, so you know, if Sanders and AOC and and not just those two, I mean, you know, the entire kind of uh slate of recent socialist candidates who went to campaign for Abdul als in Michigan just last week, they stayed away from the race. Um, and I think that uh uh reflects some of the internal doubts uh within the left about, you know, Hong as a candidate. Um I I think a lot of people were kind of wanting to see if she would be able to get through this this primary um before they kind of stepped in and wanted to to lend their names to her campaign. Um but at the same time such hesitancy can also become a self-fulfilling prophecy and it could be that that you know by staying away from the race um they they you know may have ended up kind of securing a defeat for her. Um, I think also, you know, before we get too hung up on these endorsements, you know, we don't know if these endorsement would have made a difference, there's also other factors that that uh played a role in this. I mean, one was, you know, again, uh, Hong, the socialist candidate, was way outspent by the kind of Democratic party establishment. Um, her campaign was really running on on fumes. It wasn't very well funded. I think they spent something like half a million dollars or less than half a million um on ads um whereas uh uh Crowley, the candidate who ended up winning the forces behind him spent about $4 million. So it wasn't as dramatic a overspending ratio compared to the the Michigan race. Although that one really was a an outlier in terms of just how much money was being poured, but but they were significantly outspent. Um there were also you know internal uh uh mistakes that that the Hong campaign made arguably mistakes. I mean you know for instance Hong was the only candidate who did not spend a single scent on TV advertising. Um and she you know I think I think that was the strategy was we're going to try and focus on the voters that that we need to turn out that we know are going to be enthused about our campaign. But it could be argued that, you know, in that final stretch as the establishment was kind of um really attacking her and as they spent big on these um on these ads that that were kind of calling into question her electability, putting some money towards television advertising herself to kind of reach some of these voters and allay their their fears um may have helped to combat this. um you know and and I think other people have point out that that Holland didn't really go on the attack whereas in the final stretch they really were hammering her um for some of these electability concerns and you know there have been questions raised about you know could Hongk have been a little more nimble and skilled and kind of dealing with some of these um questions that were being raised about these old tweets and so on and so forth. you know, with every campaign there are a million things I think that that you can point to, but but I think, you know, in terms of what the campaign itself could have controlled. Um, those are things that should be looked at, uh, you know, and reflected on in in the months ahead besides just the kind of uh, standards and AOC and and so on, not not jumping in. And another analysis I've seen on online today from a bunch of people is to say Penny or Peggy, sorry, Peggy Flanigan um who who has become the Senate candidate um in in in Minnesota, she's a sort of economic populist. She wants Medicare for all. She wants to reign in the power of the billionaires. Um but she hasn't got the same sort of history of saying abolish the police or cancel Halloween. And that shows actually the way to victory, which is economic populism without the kind of cultural stuff that many people find alienating or weird. Um, and I suppose this feeds in really, doesn't it, to to AOC saying woke one was crazy. So, how does this result feed into that particular debate about whether or not economic populace should ditch the cultural stuff? >> I mean, I think that uh the defund slogan, for instance, you know, that that one has been problematic. uh you obviously it made sense at the time but there has been an effort by socialist candidates since then to kind of reframe how they how they uh uh talk about this issue. um you know I mean actually polling and even elections show that that the public is in favor of diverting uh uh funding towards sort of more less punitive kind of uh and and and and you know alternatives to policing basically you know people who are first responders who who aren't policeed who aren't armed u mental health professionals and so on and so forth we have seen that actually be an electoral winner in certain parts uh of the country I I think I think you know uh the fact that you see people like Hong and Al sayed kind of you know and and Zar Mandani too kind of backing away from some of these issues I think reflects acknowledgement that that that you know this is not necessarily the most electorally viable thing and and you know I mean when it comes to um uh some of the more cultural stuff you know some of the things that Hong really became controversial for you know talking hating um holidays, public holidays, and talking about race in these very kind of specific kind of campusoriented ways. Um you know, I think that stuff has really been acknowledged, widely acknowledged as pretty toxic and alienating. Um I think that's an outgrowth of where the left was uh in this long period of wilderness in the uh the first part of the 21st century. And I think there's an understanding that that, you know, to to really be able to meet people where they are, that kind of stuff has to be left behind. Um, I think with Fan, we should also mention, I mean, Fanigan was kind of a more establishment um, uh, candidate, even though she did have these policy positions that that overlap with the left. I mean, you know, she was the lieutenant governor. So, she was someone who was a more of a well-known quantity in in the state. um is and was able to kind of balance those progressive positions while while kind of having the the opaces of of of being a sort of more establishment back candidate. >> Super interesting uh conversation between Michael and Branco. He does great work. Jackman does great work. There is so much interesting media right now in the states. You know, we've just cited of course Drop Site News a little bit earlier in the story. There's Jacobin too, other publications as well. um just coming from the left and and helping to redefine the terms of what's just a credible political conversation which is really um distilled with someone like Peggy Peggy Fanigan, right? They they have the agenda of the radical left in the US of the DSA without being in the DSA. Great. Um and I do think there's a learning there in terms of these two different politicians, Peggy Flanigan and Hong. um and and why one did well and and one underwhelmed, right? I think it's it's pretty instructive. I I agree. It's actually quite straightforward as to why that happened. At the same time, I think Hong is 37 now, so they were 31 when they were saying that stuff. I'm 42, so that's a baby, of course. Um but you know, people can say slightly strange or incoherent things during a co lockdown. And I don't think that should disqualify them from ever standing for public office. But you know what? She's young. She can stand again. Uh but that stuff just isn't very popular. As my colleague Michael Walker has said many, many times. Um it's just not popular with a median voter. And that's fine. You're allowed to think it. You might even be right. You know, Michael Walker might be wrong, but if you want to win public office, you can't really say that. Does that mean that, you know, more people in prison is a good idea? I think Britain, for instance, has too many people in prison. I think America certainly has too many people in prison. Um, what are the solutions is of course the point, right? That's that's what you're then meant to discuss. But these kind of huge statements that are just sort of put out on social media, again, fine if you want to do it, but if you also want to win public office, it's probably going to hold you back.